Each year, the National EquipmentRegister (NER) and the NationalInsurance Crime Bureau (NICB)track heavy equipment theft reports and compile a list of the mostcommonly stolen pieces of machinery as well as the states in whichthefts are most likely to occur.

The report uses data from the National Crime Information Center(NCIC), the NICB, and NER to provide a comprehensive analysis ofheavy-equipment theft during the year, with the goal of helpingprovide insurance companies and others with information that can beused to help allocate investigative resources and influence theftprevention efforts.

In 2010, the NCIC received 13,374 theft reports. In descendingorder, the five states with the most incidents of heavy-equipmenttheft were:

• Texas
• Florida
• North Carolina
• Georgia, and
• South Carolina.

Together, those five states accounted for 43 percent of totalequipment theft. Rounding out the top 10 were California,Tennessee, Oklahoma, Alabama, and Ohio. The top 10 states accountedfor 61 percent of all thefts. Last year, just 19 percent of heavyequipment stolen was recovered.